Air de-contaminator



May 24, 1960 .1. H. wooDs AIR DE-CONTAMINATQR Filed Sept. 22, 1958'United States Patent Am Dn-coNrAMlNA'roR e vJames H. Woods, 6 02Griswold St., San Fernando, Calif.

.. Filed sept. zz, 195s, ser. No. 762,605

` 7 claims. (c1. 18s-2s).

This invention relates to apparatus for cleaning or decontaminatingatmospheric air and is a continuation-1npart of my pending applicationSerial No. 718,525,A now..

abandoned, filed March 3, 1958.

An object of the present invention is to purify atmospheric air byproducing an agitated mist of said air and water and gravitationallyseparating the Washed air from thecOntaminated Water that may bedirected to sewage disposal. y

Another object of the invention is to draw the atmos phere through aspray of water and then to so .thoroughly agitate the same that foreignparticles in the air become wetted and too heavy to rise in theatmosphere which, thereby, is cleansed. V f

f The invention also has for-its objectsto provide such means Vthat arepositive in operation, convenient in use, easilyqinstalled in a workingposition and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture,relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability. v Y

'I'he invention also comprises novel details of constructionand novelcombinations and arrangements offparts, whichWwill more fully appear inthe course of the following description. "However, the drawingmerelyshows and the'following description merely describes,oneernbodi-.yV givenV by way ofA mentL` of the, present invention, whichis illustration or example only. l y l,

, In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts inthe several views. Y

Fig. lis a longitudinal sectional view of air de-contaminating apparatusshowing afpreferrediembodiment of the present invention.

:The airdecontaminatin'g' apparatus that is illustratedcomprises,"generally', a' storm drain 5, an velongated endopenihoriz'ontal enclosure 6, v`preferably above ground, andcoveringlithefs'torm drain"5,' ai pair` of air andlgimpllrity ri'sers 7spaced'longitudinally along the enclosure 6 and receptive from oppositeends of said enclosure of atmospheric air drawn into the enclosuremeans8- to spray water across 'each 'end of the enclosure, land mans`9 tointermiX said water and air entering the enclosure and direct the same,in the form of a mist, toward the middle of the enclosure.

The storm sewer S is of conventional construction and may be positionedbelow the ground surface 10, as shown, or may comprise an open ditch. Ineither case, the storm sewer is provided with an opening 11 to thesurface 10 to expose water flow 12 in the drain from above and servingas a subsurface outlet vent for the enclosure 6.

The enclosure 6 is shown as an elongated duct or passageway disposed onthe ground surface and overstanding the drain opening 11. In practice,said enclosure is perferably longer than opening 11 and the ared ends 13of the enclosure are, in part, defined by the ground sur- Acap 15;

Each riser 7 alsoaincludes a chamber 17v around the perforated portionof tube 14, the same being defined within an annular Wall 18, a lowerend annular walll 19 between wall 18 and tube 14, and an upper endannular Wall 20 spaced above the closure wall 15. A tubular stack21rises from the chamber 17 in Avertical alignment with tube 14, saidstack being carried by the annular wall 20.5 Said stackfis preferably ofsuch height as to induce draft such as will cause discharge of airthrough the upperend thereof. Y

The lmeans 8 is shown as a water inlet pipe 22, at each end, terminatingin a preferably capped horizontal pipe 23'that extends across the upperportion of enclosure 6, as best seen in Fig. 2. On the inwardly directedside, each pipe 23 is provided with perforations24. It will be clearthat Water under pressure'in said pipe 23 will be` directedA in the formof a spray 25 into the interior of` the enclosure.

. p IThe means 9 is shown as a fan 26 driven by an electric motor 27 anddisposed across the path of the spray 25. By providing the fan 26withtoverlapping blades, the same insures an eliicient intermix of airdrawn into the enclosure inthedirection of arrows 28 with the spray25'.r

reason of high rotation'of the fan, the spray directed against itsblades is broken up into a fine mist which j oins the airstream andeffects the mentioned intermix ofair and water.

".The arrangement is such as to insure an efficient admixtureof waterand air whereby the resultant mist or vapor comprises extremely smallparticles. Those particles that contain'contaminants may be larger andheavier than the topr11 thereofand are drawn away with the flow 12.

face 10. It will be noted `that the enclosure 6 has a half- '70 roundcross-sectional form which, While preferred, may

' The finer, lighter'particlesr, from opposite ends of the enclosure 6,will commingle'at 30 in the middle area between the risers 7. Since thisturbulent flow of mist is subject to the cooling effect of the flow,12,which takesl effect through the drain opening 11, .an eticient fall-outof contaminants'in this turbulence occurs, the samejoining the w 1 2, asbefore. V Thus, th'e enclosure betweenVV v L its endsf'llanduthe middlethereof has residual ows of g mist'that are'jlightenough to rise in therisers 7 since they 'fI'he'misuiparticles willbeintercepted by closurel5-' and be directed laterally through perforations 16. Such collectionof the vapors that occurs by'this lateral movement will precipitate inchamber 17 and eventuallyy will drain back through tube 14 into theenclosure 6 from which the same will fall into the iiow 12 ofthe stormdrain. The lighter, drier air particles that become separated in chamber17 from the wetted, liquid-bearing particles are drawn upwardly in stack21 and exit from the .stack as clean air.

It will be realized that the closure 15 and the annulus 2.0 serve asinterceptors that increase the air-freeing effects obtained and,therefore, the eliiciency of return to the enclosure 6 of anycontaminantparticles of mist. Such returning particles may again become subject toaction of the mist produced by the means 8 and 9 but the end result isthe deposit of all contaminants into the storm drain and release fromthe stacks of only pure air.

-The capacity to move and clean air by the apparatus Patented. May 24,1960,.v

will depend largely on its size and the same may, of course, be designedto move and clarify millions of cubic feet of atmospheric air per hourof operation.

While the foregoing specification illustrates and d escribes what I nowcontemplate to be the best mode of carrying out my invention, theconstruction is, of course, subject to modification without departingfrom the spirit and scope Aof my invention. Therefore, I do not desireto restrict the invention to the particular form of constructionillustrated and described, but desire to cover all modications that mayfall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what is claimed and desired to besecured by Letters Patent is:

1. The combination of an elongated open-ended enclosure having anelongated subsurface vent that is open above a ow of water therepast,means at each said open end to draw contaminant-containing atmosphericair into the enclosure, means to embody said air llow into sprays ofwater directed inwardly toward the middle of the en-` closure, saidairborne sprays commingling turbulently above said vent and subject tocooling by the flow of water below said open vent to cause precipitationof the large spray-wetted contaminants in the air ow into the vent,riser means carried by the enclosure, one on each side of the area ofturbulence, and means in the riser means to separate the air and thecontaminants therein from each other, and which riser means rise fromthe enclosure, said riser means including stacks to draw the 'airupwardly and outward.

2. The combination according to claim 1 in which the riser meansincludes passages to conduct released contaminants back into theenclosure.

3. The combination of an elongated open-ended enclosure having anelongated subsurface vent that is open above a ow of water therepast,means at each said open end to draw contaminant-containing atmosphericair into the enclosure, means to embody said air flow into sprays ofwater directed inwardly toward the middle of the enclosure, saidair-borne sprays commingling turbulently above said vent and subjectl tocooling by the ow of water to cause precipitation of the largespray-wetted contaminants in the air flow into the vent, a riser betweenthe middle and each end of the enclosure, eachriser comprising avertical perforated and end-closed tube extending upwardly from andreceiving flow of spray-wetted air from the enclosure, a chamber aroundeach tube and receptive of lateral flow through the perforations of therespective tubes, and` a stack-extending upwardly from each chamber andproducing a draft to draw up and out the drier particles of aircirculating in said chambers.

4. Air de-contaminating apparatus comprising a hori-` zontal, elongatedand open-ended enclosure, means at each end of the enclosure toV drawcontaminant-containing atmospheric air into the enclosure, means toincorporate said air and its contaminants into sprays of WaterY directedinwardly toward the middle of the enclosure, said air-borne sprayscommingling turbulently in the enclosure and causing some of the heavierparticles of spray to fall out'of the turbulent ow, riser means carriedby the enclosure, one on each side ofthe area of turbulence, and meansin the riser means to separate the air and the contaminants therein fromeach other, and which riser means rise from the enclosure, said risermeans including stacks to draw the air upwardly and outward.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 in which means is provided inwardly ofeach source of water spray to elect the mentioned incorporation of waterspray and air, said means having moving blades to break the spray into aline mist.

6. Air cleaning apparatus comprising a generally horizontal enclosurehaving an open air inlet at each end and a central area of turbulence,two longitudinally spaced vertical, perforated, end-closed pipesextending upwardly from the enclosure one on each side of said area ofturbulence, means within the enclosure at each end thereof to drawatmospheric air into the enclosurev through its inlets, each meanscomprising a fan disposed adjacent the inlet end of the duct, andincluding a set of overlapping fan blades arranged to span thetransverse area of the enclosure, means to introduce a spray of waterinto each air stream moving in the enclosure, said latter means eachcomprising a spray-releasing member dis posed across the enclosure anddirecting its spray against the inlet sides of the fan` blades, and astack above the closed end of each perforated pipe to draw air from theperforated pipe and discharge the same into atmosphere,` moisture fromthe air stream discharging downwardly from the enclosure. v

7. Air cleaning apparatus comprising in combination, an elongatedenclosure having a lower outlet, means for directing air to be cleanedinto the enclosure from each end thereof, and means to introduce spraysof water with said air, the air from both ends meeting turbulently atthe central portion of the elongated enclosure and the turbulencetending to cause droppage of heavy particles from the air together withmoisture, said enclosure having a pair of upwardly directed openings ateach end of the central portion for withdrawing air and lighterentrained particles from saidenclosure, moisture-separating meansconnected to said upwardly directed openings and outlet stacks connectedthereto for purified air.

References'Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSGermany oct. 17, 1889

